Sunny Summer Dress

I bought a bunch of fabric for the skirt challenge that I didn't use, so I decided to take a shot at making a dress. This one is my own design-no pattern, no single source of inspiration. My original idea was to have a small calico print on top and a larger print on bottom. then I did a lot of mixing and matching fabrics until I found a combo I liked, grabbed some lace and then winged it until a wearable dress emerged. The lace sash at the hip tends to bunch up as I wear the dress, though, so I need to figure out a way to keep it flat. Maybe I just need to sew it on and add a zipper to the thing.
I'm not usually one to wear strapless dresses, but I'm trying harder to get out of my comfort zone, clothing wise. I also thought this would be good for evening out my perpetual farmer's tan. (Not so visible here because I am vain enough to Photoshop out such unflattering variations in skin tone-along with giant blue veins and a big ol's bruise. Cut me some slack! At least I didn't thin up my fatty fatso arms!)
Anyway, this is another cheap-o dress. The bottom fabric was a great find-Robert Kaufman's Lucky Girl found for $1/yard and the calico on top was $1.75. I bought a bunch of lace from someone destashing on Etsy, too, so cheap, cheap, cheap!

In other news-I'm recently obsessed with the idea of making my own shoes. Has anyone ever done that, or know of a good tutorial or book about that?

Evolution of a Birthday Party, Marigold Style

Step 1
Loudly declare that I will not be doing a birthday party for Milo this year.

Step 2
Find out that East Coast friends will be visiting right around Milo's birthday, and decide that since we would be hanging out with them and our San Diego friends anyway, we should host a get together for the grown-ups and call it a "birthday party" but really it will be mostly beer and pizza and maybe a birthday cake. Nothing big, nothing crazy. Not really for Milo. Just a get together with old college friends + cake. Simple. Easy.

Step 3
Think about how Milo really loves ping pong, and wouldn't that be a cute theme? What if we played ping pong? Steve's parents have a table. It's not a "real" birthday party, after all, and ping pong is totally an adult party game. That sounds fun and simple! Easy. Simple. Not a real birthday party.

Step 4
Go nuts. Go absolutely nuts. Order a bunch of ping-pong related crap off of the Internet. Spend hours designing and creating party favors. Make sketches. Research food. Establish a budget. Create Excel worksheets. Throw ideas at Steve and bore him with every detail. Have anxiety dreams about not finishing the cake on time.

Step 5
Host Awesome-est 2-year-old Ping Pong Themed Birthday Party Ever!

Step 6
Accept gushing compliments with humble grace and sheepish grins. Oh, it was nothing! No. It was all very simple. Easy.

The birthday boy

Party favors were personalized team t-shirts for each kid, matching sweatbands and headbands, and ping pong paddles.

All of the food was shaped in balls-chicken balls (with creamy dip!), melon balls, and a salad with cherry tomatoes, olives and marinated mozzarella balls. Any party where the guests get to say "balls" several times an hour is sure to be a hit!

mini-pita bread "paddles"

ping-pong ball cake (cake balls)

We also had a tournament for the adults with the following rules:

TOURNAMENT RULES and REGULATIONS:

1. Tournament participation is required of all adults over the age of 4 ½. Non-participation will result in being sent home without any cake.
2. Scoring will be based on the referee’s discretion, rather than actual points scored or “rules of fairness.”
3. Rotating referees will be selected from a pool of non-adults under the age of 4 ½.
4. Smack talk is highly encouraged, and points may be awarded for style.
5. Bribing, tickling and verbally influencing the referees is likewise encouraged. A match will continue until one or more participants is sick of it and/or needs to use the restroom, at which point a referee will call the winner.

Uncle Tony proved best at manipulating the referees.

Skirts Challenge - Week 4 Flickr Round Up

Here we go! The final Flickr Round Up of the Summer of No Pants Skirt Sewing Challenge. Thanks to everyone who participated. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. I have loved looking at all of the skirts that you have made!

On to this week's skirts: Miranda Panda made a pretty little dress out of old bed sheets. Totertot came in out of nowhere with two skirts! One from the punky petticoat tute, and another that's a reversible wrap. (p.s. check out her etsy shop. There's a Storm Trooper messenger bag my kids would flip over). And, finally, Venus de Hilo made a simple aline out of lovely purple fabric-but she's feeling "meh" about it and could use some suggestions to help jazz it up. Check out her blog and help her out.

And remember to check out the whole Flickr Pool for alternate views and detail shots on these and all of the skirts that were entered into the challenge. The Flickr Pool will remain open, so if there is anyone who didn't *quite* get to finishing before the deadline, or if you just can't get enough of making skirts, please feel free to continue to add pics to the pool! I will be!

Miranda, An Austin Homestead

totertot

totertot

 Venus de Hilo

Skirt No. 4

This is it! My very last skirt of the four week skirt sewing challenge! For this one I used the Elastic Waist Skirt Tutorial over at Freshly Picked. The only issue I had while making the skirt was that I cut the elastic to my waist size (and even tried on the elastic loop before I attached the fabric to it) but once I stretched the elastic and sewed the fabric to it, it ended up being a couple of inches too big. Not sure what happened, but I had to take it in. Next time I'll make the waist a little tighter to allow for some stretching.
I love this skirt, though! It is so, so comfortable. The pockets are pretty much invisible, too, and one of my problems altogether with the Summer of No Pants is that I tend to need pockets for all of my cars and fireballs and snot rags. The fullness of this skirt makes all of that stuff shoved in there totally unnoticeable. And it came together so quickly. I will be making many more of these skirts! Bonus: I bought the fabric for 99¢ a yard, and it was double wide home decor fabric, so total cost of this skirt was less than $3.

Skirts Challenge - Week 3 Flickr Round Up

Ahh. Week 3 and most of you have petered out, it seems. Believe me--I get it. It took me until Saturday to finish mine, and I'm running the thing! But this is the LAST WEEK! Only one more left-you can do it!

I did get two lovely entries from Venus de Hilo and Zom for Week 3. Looks like all three of us did some upcycling/re-fashioning this week!

Venus de Hilo

Zom G.- Zom, Sweet Zom

(adding in one more-just went through the "participating bloggers" links to see if anyone posted on their blogs without sending to the Flickr Group, and remembered that Carpe Diem had made this skirt for Week 1)

 Carpe Diem

Skirt No. 3

For Skirt #3, I took this pillowcase (purchased from Big Apple Vintage on Etsy):

and turned it into this skirt:

Quit looking at my butt! Now me and my boys are gonna have to whoop you!

It is a very thin, sheer material, and so I lined it, but it is still pretty sheer.  I plan on wearing it primarily as a beach skirt, though, so that is fine.  I think it will be very cute with my red polkadot bathing suit!

Skirts Challenge - Week 2 Flickr Round Up

Only four skirts in the pool this week, but what a lovely group it is! It looks like everyone is on board with bright, summer colors.
If you click on a picture, it will take you to the Flickr page and a larger image. If you click on the link under a picture, it will take you to the creator's blog (to a specific post about that skirt, if available).
Many of the skirts have multiple views and/or detail shots, so be sure to check out the whole Flickr Pool to see them all. Week 2 Roundup! Here you go:

Miranda, An Austin Homestead	Venus de Hilo
Venus de Hilo	Wendy Janelle, Living Creatively

Skirt No. 2

Here is my second skirt for the challenge.  I call this one my Minty Fresh skirt.  It is made from t-shirt knit fabric from my stash.  For the bottom ruffle, I sewed together a few lengths of white t-shirt knit--about 1 1/2 times longer than the bottom edge of the skirt.  Then I folded it in half lengthwise and ruffled along the raw edges.  I then sewed the right sides together and when it flipped down I ended up with a very neat ruffle.  It flows well and is very comfy.  My only compliant is that the material is thinner than I realized and it is a bit revealing!  I will definitely need to buy or make some slips.
The best part about this skirt is that it all came together in one sitting with zero interruptions.  My husband and I took a kid-free mini-vacation last week.  Steve had to work one of the nights, so I made sure to bring along my sewing machine.  More on that later this week!

Skirts Challenge - Week 1 Flickr Round Up

First of all, I would like to say "Thank you!" to everyone who has signed up for this sewing challenge and "Thank you, thank you!" to those who actually managed to get a skirt completed and get a picture uploaded to the Flickr pool for Week 1.  To be honest, I was worried that I was throwing a party and nobody would show up, so I'm super excited that others have taken interest in the challenge.  If you didn't make this week's deadline (I know it's tough sometimes) please don't give up!  There are still three weeks left to indulge in some selfish sewing :)
Here are the skirts posted to Flickr for Week 1 of the challenge.  If you click on a picture, it will take you to the Flickr page and a larger image.  If you click on the link under a picture, it will take you to the creator's blog (to a specific post about that skirt, if available).  Without further ado:

Miranda, An Austin Homestead	Wendy Janelle, Living Creatively
Wendy Janelle, Living Creatively	Miranda, An Austin Homestead
Zom G., Zom Sweet Zom	Stephanie, Modern Day Mom